/  m 


TKINITY  CHURCH,  SIXTH  EDIFICE.  1898 


NNALS    OF    AN    OLD    PARISH 


HISTORICAL    SKETCHES    OF 


TRINITY  CHURCH   SOUTHPORT  CON 

NECTICUT   1725  TO   1898   BY  REV. 

EDMUND    GUILBERT   D.   D. 


Published  by  Thomas  Whittaker, 
2  and  3  Bible  House,  New  York 
MDCCCXCVIII  #  jt  #  # 


COPYRIGHT  1898 
BY  EDMUND  GUILBERT. 


Co 
my  Beloved  Parishioners 

of 

trinity  Cburcl), 
Whose  Eoyal  Devotion  and  Unwavering  Kindness 

tiave  united  in  making 

my  sojourn  among  them 

Cbe  happiest  Period  of  my  Life, 

this  Uoiumc, 

Che  Record  of  the  noble  Ulorks  done  in  their  Days 
find  in  the  Old  time  before  Chem, 

i$ 
Affectionately  Dedicated. 


20124G* 


EDITION  DE  LUXE 

One  Hundred  copies,  on  extra  paper,  numbered  from  1  to 
100,  were  printed  in  the  month  of  November,  1898. 


PREFACE. 

The  annals  of  a  religious  Society,  whose  inception  long  ante- 
dates this  waning  century,  are  necessarily  the  record  of  the 
varying  vicissitudes  through  which  it  has  passed  ;  the  successes 
it  has  achieved  ;  as  well  as  the  unerring  witness  to  the  quality 
of  the  men  and  women,  who,  from  the  beginning,  have  been 
identified  with  its  career.  It  follows  then,  that  our  venerable 
Parish,  having  been  the  representative  of  principles  which, 
though  unpopular  with  the  many,  were  as  dear  to  their  uphold- 
ers as  their  existence;  having  begun  and  maintained,  for  a 
century  and  three-quarters,  a  continuously  vigorous  life,  in  the 
face,  a  part  of  the  time,  of  determined  opposition;  and  having 
had  in  its  membership  specimens  of  the  best  brawn  and  intel- 
ligence of  New  England,  must  have  in  its  past  much  that  is  in- 
teresting, and  worth  rescuing  from  oblivion.  Possessed  with 
this  feeling,  and  also  conscious  that  there  are  those  of  advan- 
cing years,  whose  memory  of  events  and  persons  is  still  vivid ; 
who,  in  the  course  of  nature,  will  not  be  with  us  a  great  while 
longer,  the  writer  has  felt  impelled  to  prepare  this  volume. 
Nor  is  this  all:  Fairfield  and  Stratford — for  the  two  places 
are  indissolubly  linked  together  in  the  early  history  of  Episco- 
pacy in  Connecticut — formed  the  "cradle"  in  which  the  Church 
in  these  parts  was  nurtured ;  and  while  it  ought  never  to  be  for- 
gotten by  Churchmen,  what  a  vast  debt  is  due  to  such  men 
as  Johnson,  and  Caner,  and  Shelton,  and  to  their  successors, 
for  the  important  part  they  took  in  its  upbringing,  there  is 
another  aspect  of  the  matter.  The  writer  is  no  bigot;  he 
ever  strives  to  own  and  cultivate  a  "judicial  mind;"  he  dis- 
claims any  intention  of  being,  under  the  guise  of  an  impartial 
observer,  a  partisan;  he  is,  however,  constrained  to  state,  as 


Vi.  PREFACE. 

the  result  of  his  observations,  his  conviction,  that  the  Denom- 
inations around  him  are  also  under  great  obligations  to  the 
Communion  with  which  he  is  connected.  The  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church,  although  they  may  not  know,  or  be  willing  to 
acknowledge  it,  he  believes,  has  helped  materially  to  advance 
their  condition.  One  has  only  to  note  the  character  of  the 
prevailing  religious  services  of  to-day,  to  discern  that  it  is  the 
features  the  Church  has  always  made  part  of  its  system,  which 
are  set  forth  in  its  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  that  freely  adopted, 
largely  enables  them  to  retain  their  hold  upon  their  people. 
Nor  is  this  a  new  departure.  In  the  early  part  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  the  leanest  kind  of  provision  was  made  for 
those  who  attended  Divine  worship  in  the  different  meeting- 
houses; and  from  that  time  onward  there  has  been  a  gradual 
enrichment,  until  we  reach  the  stage  that  is  visible  at  the 
present  time. 

It  must  be  difficult  for  modern  non-Episcopalians,  for  exam- 
ple, who  are  accustomed  to  fine  organs,  and  elaborate  music, 
rendered  by  selected  choirs;  who  hear  the  Te  Deum,  and 
Gloria  in  Excelsis,  and  Gloria  Patri,  sung  every  Sunday,  and 
the  Apostles  Creed  recited ;  the  Psalms  said  antiphonally ;  who 
observe  Christmas  and  are  familiar  with  Easter  floral  decora- 
tions; who  are  fully  aware  that  the  trend  of  their  worship  is 
more  and  more  in  a  liturgical  direction,  to  realize  that  these 
things  are  all  borrowed  from  the  Episcopal  Church  ;  that  in  the 
old  days  the  keeping  of  Christmas  and  Easter,  was  considered 
sure  evidence  of  affiliation  with  the  Papacy;  that  the  Lord's 
Supper  and  Holy  Baptism  were  little  esteemed  and  infrequent- 
ly administered;  that  laymen,  without  a  scintilla  of  authority, 
ordained  other  men  to  the  sacred  Ministry ;  that  laymen  in- 
variably performed  the  marriage  ceremony;  that  the  dead  were 
buried,  without  any  service  being  said  over  them  at  all.  Yet 
such  is  the  fact,  and  there  is  no  question  but  that  the  Episco- 
pal Church,  by  means  of  its  Liturgy,  its  painstaking  and  rev 
erent  attention  to  the  details  of  Divine  Worship,  its  Sacra- 


ments,  its  Ministry,  the  same  ever  as  it  is  to-day,  has  percep- 
tibly influenced  the  various  religious  bodies  with  which  it  has 
come  in  contact.  They  owe  it  then  their  good-will,  and  should 
surely  be  among  those  who  regard  its  history  in  the  past  with 
kindly  interest,  and  are  resolved  to  pray  for  its  prosperity 
in  the  years  to  come.  These  reflections  are  especially  com- 
mended, with  the  writer's  fraternal  regards,  to  his  neighbors, 
the  religious  Organizations  of  the  Town  of  Fairfield. 

Once  in  a  great  while  allusion  is  made  to  the  so-called  dis- 
loyalty of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  the  time  of  the  American 
Revolution.  Its  Clergy  at  that  crucial  epoch  were  mostly 
Englishmen;  ordained  in  England;  and  supported  altogether, 
or  in  part,  by  the  Venerable  Society  of  London.  As  was  to  be 
expected,  they  looked  at  events,  as  they  came  to  pass,  from  the 
English  point  of  view.  Not  a  few  of  the  Clergy,  nevertheless, 
were  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  Colonies ;  while  the  laity  as 
a  body  were  overwhelmingly  on  its  side.  What  if  a  portion  of 
the  former  remained  steadfast  to  the  old  order  of  things?  At 
least,  they  were  sincere  in  their  convictions,  and  honest  in  the 
maintenance  of  them.  We  have  had  an  experience  in  the  late 
Civil  War  that  must  teach  us  to  view  tenderly,  and  have  great 
respect  for,  men  who  had  the  courage  of  their  convictions, 
who  refused  under  the  greatest  pressure  to  violate  their  oath 
of  allegiance,  and  own  submission  to  what  they  considered  an 
usurping  government. 

The  attention  of  the  reader  is  particularly  invited  by  the 
writer  to  the  great  value  of  the  appendices.  The  quaint  and 
interesting  "Sketch  of  Trinity  Parish,"  by  the  Rev.  Philo 
Shelton,  is  printed  in  full  for  the  first  time.  The  almost 
priceless  "Private  Record  of  Baptisms,  Marriages,  Burials, 
etc.,  performed  by  Rev.  Philo  Shelton,  during  the  Forty  Years 
of  his  Ministry,  1785-1825  A.  D.,"  has  never  been  given  to  the 
public  before,  so  far  as  is  known.  It  contains  over  four  thou- 
sand names,  and  deserves  not  only  to  be  put  in  a  shape  which 
shall  transmit  it  unmutilated  to  succeeding  generations;  but 


yjU  PREFACE. 

also  to  be  made  accessible  to  those,  who  at  any  future  time, 
shall  be  interested  in  genealogical  researches  among  the  early 
settlers  of  the  Town  of  Fairfield.  The  copy  of  the  "  Record,'' 
now  in  the  possession  of  Trinity  Parish,  was  transcribed  from 
the  original,  which  is  held  as  an  heirloom  in  the  Sheldon  fam- 
ily, by  Mr.  Lewis  B.  Curtis,  of  Southport ;  to  whose  faithful 
and  arduous  labors  the  thanks  of  the  writer  are  due. 

Whatever  may  be  the  merit  of  the  following  pages,  the  writer 
makes  no  claim  to  originality.  Others  before  him  have  treated 
portions  of  his  subject  exhaustively.  It  has  been  his  pur- 
pose rather  to  collect  than  to  construct  that  which  is  entirely 
new;  to  procure  from  all  available  sources  such  items  of  his- 
tory as  relate  to  Trinity  Parish;  and  arrange  them  in  the  most 
convenient  order.  The  archives  of  the  Venerable  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  of  London,  England,  under 
whose  welcome  auspices,  what  is  now  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church,  was  introduced  into  Connecticut,  have  been  con- 
sulted. The  Town  Records  have  been  carefully  searched.  The 
Colonial  Records,  as  far  as  published,  have  also  been  examined. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Beardsley's  "  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
Connecticut;"  as  well  as  the  admirable  "Historical  Discourse 
for  the  Jubilee  of  the  Venerable  Society,"  above  mentioned,  de- 
livered in  Trinity  Church,  Southport,  August  10th,  1851,  by  the 
Rev.  Nathaniel  E.  Corn  wall,  Rector,  have  afforded  much  neces- 
sary information,  which  has  been  freely  utilized.  The  Parish 
Records  preserved  intact  from  the  year  of  the  destruction  of 
the  second  Church  and  Parsonage, by  the  British,  1779,  A.  D. 
to  the  present  day,  have  proved  a  source  of  enlightenment  to  so 
great  an  extent,  that  were  they  wanting,  even  this  brief  tran- 
script of  the  past  life  of  the  Parish  could  never  have  been 
written.  Various  parishioners,  and  others  who  do  not  stand  in 
that  relation,  have  furnished  a  great  deal  of  valuable  material, 
both  written  and  oral.  As  it  would  be  invidious  to  specify 
one  and  not  the  rest,  their  names  are  not  published.  To  all 
of  them  the  writer's  indebtedness  is  gratefully  acknowledged. 


This  does  not  pretend  to  be  a  perfect  book.  No  history 
that  was  ever  written,  can  claim  to  be  faultless.  The  most 
careful,  as  well  as  diligent,  student  is  always  liable  to  make 
mistakes.  The  writer  believes,  though,  there  are  but  few  in 
the  work  he  now  offers  to  his  readers.  Whatever  genuine 
errors  or  notable  omissions  there  may  be,  whoever  discovers 
them,  will  do  him  a  favor  by  pointing  them  out,  and  he  prom- 
ises that  in  due  time  they  shall  be  corrected  or  supplied. 

Southport,  November  1st,  1898.  E.  G. 


"Superficial  it  must  be,  but  I  do  not  disown  the  charge. 
Better  a  superficial  book  which  brings  well  and  strikingly 
together  the  known  and  acknowledged  facts,  than  a  dull, 
boring  narrative,  pausing  at  every  moment  to  see  further  into 
a  millstone  than  the  nature  of  the  millstone  will  admit." 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  Journal,  December  22nc7,  1825. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

I.  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  AND  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  UNQUOWA, 

AFTERWARDS,  THE  TOWN  OF  FAIRFIELD,  1638  A.D.  1 

II.  SKETCH  OF  THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  SITUATION  IN  CON- 
NECTICUT, 1638  A.  D  to  1818  A.  D.    -  6 
III.  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  VENERABLE  SOCIETY  :     VISIT 
OF  KEITH   AND    TALBOT   TO   THE   NEW   ENGLAND 
COLONIES,  1702  A.  D.                                                   10 
IV.  THE  KEY.  GEORGE  MUIRSON,  THE  REV.  MESSRS.  TAL- 
BOT, SHARPE,  AND  BRIDGE,  OFFICIATE  AT  FAIRFIELD 
1706-1723  A.  D.                                                           24 
V.  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE  EEV.   SAMUEL  JOHNSON,  AND 
THE   BUILDING   OF   THE  FIRST  CHURCH  AT  MILL 
PLAIN,    1723-1727  A.  D.                                                30 
VI.  THE    REV.    HENRY  CANER,  THE  FIRST  EECTOR  OF 
TRINITY  CHURCH,  AND  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  SEC- 
OND CHURCH  EDIFICE,  1727-1747  A.  D.                         38 
VII.  THE  REV.  JOSEPH  LAMSON'S  RECTORSHIP,  1747-1773 

A.  D.  45 

VIII.  THE  REV.  JOHN  SAYRE'S  RECTORSHIP  :  THE  BURNING 

OF  FAIRFIELD,  1773  1779  A.  D.  -  50 

IX.  MR.  PHILO  SHELTON,    LAY  READER:  ELECTION  OF 

BISHOP  SEABURY,  1779-1785  A.  D.  -       56 

X.  THE  REV.  PHILO  SHELTON'S  RECTORSHIP  :  BUILDING 
OF  THE  THIRD  CHURCH  ON  MILL  PLAIN,  1785-1817 
A.  D.  68 

XI.  THE  REV.  PHELO  SHELTON'S  RECTORSHIP  CONTINUED  : 
THE  LOTTERY:  FOUNDING  OF  THE  BIBLE  AND  PRAY- 
ER BOOK  SOCIETY  OF  TRINITY  PARISH,  1817-1820 
A.  D.  ---.....  75 


xn  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

XII.  LATTER  YEARS  OF  REV.  PHILO  SHELTON'S  RECTOR- 

SHIP:  His  DEATH,  1820-1825  A.  D. 
XIII.  THE  RECTORSHIP  OF  THE  REV.  WILLIAM  SHELTOX, 

1825-1829  AD.  89 

XIV.  THE  RECTORSHIP  OF  THE  REV.  CHARLES  SMITH: 
ERECTION  OF  THE  CHAPEL  AT  SOTJTHPORT,  1828- 
1834,  A.  D.  94 

XV.  THE  RECTORSHIP  OF  THE  REV.  NATHANIEL  E.  CORN- 
WALL: TRANSFER  OF  SERVICES  FROM  MILL  PLAIN  TO 
SOUTHPORT:  DEMOLITION  OF  THE  MILL  PLAIN 
CHUBCH,  1834-1841  A.  D.  -  99 

XVI.  CONTINUATION  OF  REV.  NATHANIEL  E.  CORNWALL'S 
RECTORSHIP  :  STATE  OF  THE  PARISH  :  RESIGNATION. 
1841-1853  A.  D.  109 

XVII.  THE  RECTORSHIP   OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  SOUVERAINE 

PURDY:  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  FOURTH  CHURCH  BY 
FIRE:  CHANGE  OF  SITE,AVD  BUILDING  OF  THE  FIFTH 
CHURCH,  1853-1858  A.  D.  -  117 

XVIII.  THE  RECTORSHIP  OF  THE  REV.  RUFUS  EMERY  :    DE- 
STRUCTION OF  THE  FIFTH  CHURCH  BY  A  TORNADO  : 
BUILDING  OF  THE  SIXTH  CHURCH,  1858-1871,  A.  D.     127 

XIX.  THE  RECTORSHIP  OF  THE  REV.  EDWARD  LIVINGSTON- 
WELLS:  BUILDING  OF  THE  CHAPEL,  1870-1877  A.D.     138 
XX.  THE  RECTORSHIP  OF  THE  REV.  TALIAFERRO  P.  CASKEY, 

1877-1879  A.  D.  .     144 

XXI.  THE  RECTORSHIP  OF  THE  REV.  CHARLES  G.  ADAMS, 

1879-1890  A.  D.  .     146 

XXII.  THE  RECTORSHIP  OF  THE  REV.  EDMUND  GUILBERT, 

1890-  152 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Trinity  Church,  Sixth  Edifice,  1898  A.  D.  Frontispiece 

Trinity  Church,  Easter,  1898  A.  D.  -  1 

Eev.  George  Keith  -  -  -  -  1G 
Seal  of  the  Venerable  Society  for  the  Propagation 

of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  -  -  18 

Eev.  Samuel  Johnson  30 
Map  of  the  Sites  of  the  Churches,  Erected  by  Trinity 

Parish  since  its  organization  33 

The  First  Church  Edifice,  Mill  Plain  :<5 

Tombstone  of  Abraham  Adams  36 

Eev.  Henry  Cauer  38 

The  Second  Church  Edifice,  Fairfield  Village  41 

Eev.  John  Say  re  -  51 

Eev.  Philo  Shelton  -  58 

House  of  John  Sherwood,  Greenfield  Hill  59 

Site  of  Old  St.  Andrews,  Aberdeen  G3 

Bishop  Seabury  64 

First  page  of  Parish  Eecord,  1779  A.  D.  -  -  66 

The  Third  Church  Edifice,  Mill  Plain  69 

Bishop  Jarvis,  71 

Foot  Stove  used  in  the  Olden  Time  73 

Fac-Simile  of  Lottery  Ticket,  1820  A.  D.  -  78 

Bishop  Hobart  -  80 

The  Shelton  Homestead,  Bridgeport  85 

Bishop  Brownell  87 

Eev.  William  Shelton  M) 

The  Old  Academy  -  -  92 

Eev.  Charles  Smith  ....  94 
Eev.  Nathaniel  E.  Cornwall  ------  99 


XIV.  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE. 

The  First  Southport  Parsonage      -  104 

The  Fourth  Church  Edifice,  Southport  109 

Pitch  Pipe  used  in  the  Old  Church  111 

Jeremiah.  Sturges    -  113 

Rev.  James  S.  Purdy  117 

The  Fifth  Church  Edifice,  Southport  119 

Bishop  Williams  121 

St.  Paul's  Church,  Fairfield  Village  122 

Justus  Sherwood,  M.  D.  124 

Rev.  Rufus  Emery  127 

Hull  Sherwood  129 

Andrew  Bulkley                                                            -         -  131 

William  Bulkley                                           -         -         -         -  133 

Moses  Bulkley                                             -  136 

Rev.  Edward  L.  Wells     -                                            -         -  138 

The  Chapel  and  the  Parish  School,  1874  A.  D.        -         -  139 

Francis  D.  Perry              -                                              .  149 

Charles  Bulkley                 ----...  142 

Bishop  Brewster                        .-..-.  143 

Rev.  Taliaferro  P.  Caskey       -                  .                  .  144 

Francis  Jelliff                                                                            .  145 

Rev.  Charles  G.  Adams   -                          -         -         -         -  146 

Jonathan  Godfrey   -                  --.._.  148 

David  Banks                      -....__  159 

Rev.  Edmund  Guilbert  152 

Chancel  of  Trinity  Church       -         -         -         -         .         -  154 

Trinity  Church,  Interior,  1890  A.  D.                 -         .         .  155 

The  Second  Southport  Parsonage  -                 -  156 

The  Rockwell  Memorial  Font                   -         -         .         -  157 

The  Francis  D.  Perry  Rectory                                             .  153 


APPENDICES. 


A.  BISHOPS  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

B.  CLERGYMEN  WHO  OFFICIATED  IN  FAIRFIELD  BEFORE  1827. 

C.  RECTORS  OF  TRINITY  PARISH. 

D.  CHURCH- WARDENS  AND  VESTRYMEN  OF  TRINITY  PARISH. 

E.  BAPTISMS  RECORDED  PREVIOUS  TO  1779. 

F.  SOME  CURIOUS  FACTS  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  DR.  JAMES  LABORIE. 

G.  STATEMENT    CONCERNING   TRINITY   PARISH,    WRITTEN    IN 
THE   PARISH   RECORD,    BY   THE   REV.  NATHANIEL   E.  CORNWALL, 
SEPTEMBER  5th,  1851. 

H.     SKETCH   OF   THE    CHURCH   AT    FAIRFIELD,    BY    THE    REV. 
PHILO  SHELTON,  WRITTEN  IN  THE  YEAR  1804. 

I.      PRIVATE  PAROCHIAL  REGISTER  OF  THE  REV.  PHILO  SHELTON. 
( Containing  over  4,000  names  of  persons  Baptized,  Conflrmed,  Admit- 
ted to  the  Communion,  Married,  and  Burled,  during  the  Rev.  Philo 
Shelton's  Kectorshlp.) 

J.      OBITUARY   NOTICES   OF    THE  REV.    PHILO    SHELTON,    AND 
LUCY  SHELTON,  His  WIFE,  BY  THE  REV.  DR.  JARVIS,  1827. 
K.     THE  BIBLE  AND  PRAYER  BOOK  SOCIETY  OF  TRINITY  PARISH. 


"  €oB  of  our  fatbers !     S&till  be  ours ; 

Cbp  gates  toHtoe  open  set, 
.3ni  fortifp  tbe  aneient  totuers 

o olhrrr  Cbon  with  them  bast  met. 
Cbp  guarfcian  fire,  Cbp  guifcing  clouU, 

;§>till  let  them  gilD  our  wall, 
I-ior  be  our  foes,  nor  Cbine  allotueti 

Co  see  us  faint  or  fall. 
Cbe  worship  of  tbe  glorious  past 

^toell  on  from  age  to  age, 
Snfc  be,  tobile  time  itself  sball  last, 

©ur  ebtlUren's  bcrttage." 

Key.    William  Croswell,  D.  D. 


TRINITY  CHURCH,  1898. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  AND  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  UNQUOWA,  AF- 
TERWARDS THE  TOWN  OF  FAIRFIELD,  1638,  A.  D. 

Scarcely  two  and  three-quarter  centuries  have  passed, 
since  the  region  in  which  the  beautiful  village  of  Southport 
now  lies,  was  a  savage  wilderness.  No  foot  of  white  man,  un- 
less it  may  have  been  that  of  some  adventurous  explorer,  had 
ever  trodden  its  solitary  wastes.  Bears  in  plentiful  numbers 
roamed,  where  now  abodes  of  refinement  and  culture  abound. 
Wolves  found  an  unmolested  retreat  amid  thickets  which  no 
woodman's  axe  had  ever  invaded.*  Everything  was  in  its 
pristine  dress ;  hillside  and  glen ;  forest  tree  and  mossy  rock ; 
wavy  margined  coast,  and  arbored  running  stream ;  all  were 
as  nature  made  and  meant  them.  Such  was  Unquowa  in  1637, 
when  a  decisive  battle  was  fought,  within  its  borders,  between 
a  detachment  of  colonists  and  the  remnant  of  the  tribe  of  the 
Pequots.  The  habitat  of  the  latter  was  the  extreme  eastern 
section  of  the  Colony,  reaching  from  the  Niantic  river  to  Rhode 
Island,  where  it  had  been  guilty  of  numerous  unprovoked  at- 
tacks upon  the  dwellings  and  hamlets  of  the  settlers.  Driven 
to  desperation,  the  colonists  attacked  their  foes,  destroyed 
their  fort  at  Groton,  and  when  they  fled,  pursued,  overtook, 
and  defeated  them  again,  near  where  the  Pequot  Library 
building  now  stands.f 

•Long  after  the  settlement  of  Unquowa,  the  bears,  the  wolves  and  the  wild-cats 
made  frequent  and  ferocious  attacks  upon  the  Inhabitants.  On  August  22nd,  1666, 
"  The  Townsmen  order  that  whoever  kills  a  bear  In  the  bounds  of  the  town  shall 
be  paid  fifty  shillings  for  each  old,  and  for  cubs  twenty  shillings  each."  Child : 
An  Old  New  England  Town,  p.  28. 

tThe  symbol  oj  brutlsm  Is  war;  of  civilization,  a  library.  The  Pequot  Library 
picturesque  architecturally,  containing  on  Its  shelves  15,000  well  selected  volumes, 
now  marks  the  spot  where  the  Pequots  were  exterminated.  Over  Its  portal,  cut  in 
Imperishable  granite,  are  these  figures,  1637-1887.  How  many,  as  they  go  In  and 
out,  note  their  deep  signification? 


2  EARLY   HISTORY    OF    UNQUOWA. 

After  the  small  but  heroic  band,*  under  valiant  Captain 
Mason,  had  exterminated  or  scattered  its  savage  foes,  it  re- 
turned, flushed  with  victory,  to  the  familiar  scenes,  which  for 
the  time  it  had  left  behind,  and  the  stillness  and  solitude  of 
the  forest  primeval  again  prevailed. 

In  April  of  the  following  year,  1638,  John  Davenport  and 
his  associates,  who  had  wintered  at  Boston,  waiting  there,  to 
use  his  own  words,  for  "The  eye  of  God's  Providence"  to 
"guide  us  to  a  place  convenient  for  our  families  and  for  our 
friends,"  and  resisting  the  inducements  offered  them  to  re- 
main in  Massachusetts  and  blend  their  influence  and  their 
wealth  with  the  earlier  immigrants — anchored  their  ships  in 
Quinnipiack  harbor,  and  began  the  settlement  of  the  Colony 
of  New  Haven.  In  1638,  a  prominent  member  of  the  Colony, 
Roger  Ludlow,  becoming  dissatisfied  with  the  existing  con- 
dition of  affairs,f  resolved  to  journey  further  westward  and 
establish  a  new  home  for  himself,  and  those  willing  to  accom- 
pany him.  The  precise  spot  he  had  in  his  mind  was  Unquowa, 
When  Captain  Mason  two  years  previously  had  marched 
against  the  Pequots,  Ludlow  had  served  under  him,  and  capti- 
vated by  the  beauty  and  the  promise  of  the  region,  had  carried 
away  with  him  a  remembrance  of  it  that  could  not  be  forgot- 
ten. To  Unquowa  then  came  Roger  Ludlow  and  his  follow- 
ers, and  selecting  the  name  of  Fail-field  for  the  new  settlement, 
began  to  devote  themselves  to  its  improvement.  The  Indians, 

•••It  Is  ordered  that  there  shall  be  an  offensive  war  against  the  Pequots,  & 
that  there  shall  be  90  men  levied  out  of  the  three  plantations,  Hartford,  Wethers, 
field  &  Windsor ;  (viz.)  out  of  Hartford  42,  Windsor  30,  Wethersfleld  18 ;  under  the 
command  of  Capt.  John  Mason,  &  In  case  of  death  or  sickness,  under  the  command 
of  Robt.  Seely,  Lelft.;  and  the  eldest  S'geantor  military  officer  surviving,  If  both 
these  miscarry."  Col.  Rec.  of  Conn.  I.,  9. 

tTo  the  Connecticut  settler,  religion  was  an  essential  part  of  dally  life  and  poli- 
tics, and  logic  was  an  essential  part  of  religion.  Town  and  church  were  but  two 
sides  of  the  same  thing.  Differences  of  opinion  there  must  be,  In  church  as  well 
as  town  matters,  therefore,  ruptures  became  Inevitable.  The  minority,  unwilling 
to  resist  the  majority,  or  to  continue  In  Illogical  union  with  It,  preferred  a  different 
location.  Thus  every  religious  dispute  usually  gave  rise  to  a  new  town.  John- 
ston :  History  of  Connecticut,  p.  6. 


EARLY   HISTORY    OF    UNQUOWA.  3 

native  and  to  the  manner  born,  at  first  were  troublesome,  but 
kindly  treatment  and  just  dealing  soon  changed  their  animos- 
ity into  friendship.  Before  many  decades  bad  passed,  Fair- 
field,  Mill  Plain,  Stratfield,  Greenfield  Hill,  Mill  Kiver  (now 
Southport),  and  Green's  Farms,  were  flourishing  localities. 
And  here  this  fact  must  be  borne  in  mind:  Trinity  Church, 
whose  history,  truly  recorded,  without  bias,  these  pages  seek 
to  perpetuate,  has  never  been  the  Church  of  a  particular  vil- 
lage, but  rather  of  an  extensive  district — the  whole  Town  of 
Fairtield.  All  the  places  mentioned  above,  have  had  a  special 
interest  in  it.  At  one  period,  vestrymen  were  annually  elected 
to  represent  them  in  its  councils.  Long  after  the  Revolution, 
the  parish,  in  addition  to  the  near-by  settlements,  reached  out 
and  took  in  Stratfield,  now  Bridgeport,  and  Northfield,  now 
Weston  To-day,  although  situate  in  Southport,  its  member- 
ship is  made  up,  as  of  old,  not  merely  of  dwellers  in  that 
village,  but.  also  of  residents  of  Saugatuck,  Green's  Farms, 
Greenfield  Hill,  Mill  Plain,  and  Fairfield  as  well. 

From  the  first,  the  settlers  of  Unquowa  enjoyed  the  great 
privilege,  new  to  them,  of  perfectly  autonomous  action  in  re- 
ligious and  civil  affairs.  As  the  Church,  so  far  as  their  experi- 
ence went,  had  always  been  the  creature  of  the  State,  they 
adopted  a  novel  and  untried  system,  which  subordinated  it, 
in  every  way,  to  the  civil  authority. 

Their  aim  was  to  inaugurate  a  government  in  which  the 
power  should  issue  wholly  from  the  people,  and  under  which, 
the  people  should  be  supreme.  This  was  the  meaning  of 
the  contest  which  was  being  waged  in  England  during  this 
period :  the  old  feudal  idea  of  absolute  rule  by  one  man,  be  he 
Baron  or  King,  was  dying  out.  The  people  had  resolved  to 
have  somewhat  to  say  in  the  administration  of  affairs  ;  and  it 
was  because  he  failed  to  discern  this  fact,  that  Charles  I.  died 
the  reverse  of  a  martyr's  death  at  Wbitehall,  in  1649.  The  Puri- 
tans then,  who  settled  Fairfield,  and  those  otherwise,  who 
afterwards  joined  them,  represented  the  intense  desire  for  self- 


4  EABLV    HISTORY    OF    UNQUOWA. 

government  which  at  that  period  was  in  the  air  ;  which  to-day 
is  just  as  strongly  a  characteristic  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 
They  were  seekers  after  pure  doctrine,  pure  politics,  pure  wor- 
ship, pure  life.  They  desired  to  solve  for  all  time  the  most 
difficult  problem  that  touches  the  secular  life  of  man — how  to 
produce  a  perfect  civic  condition  ;  to  get  as  near  Sir  Thomas 
More's  Utopian  ideal  as  is  possible  on  this  mundane  sphere. 

Tiie  environment  of  these  worthies,  we  must  remember,  was 
not  as  helpful  for  the  achievement  of  such  a  great  aim,  as  is 
ours.  Three  hundred  years  ago  the  world  was  literally  in  its 
swaddling-clothes.  It  is  really  surprising,  when  we  look  into 
it,  how  modern  all  that  makes  up  the  comfort  of  present  liv- 
ing is.  We  feel  ourselves  aggrieved  to-day,  if  we  have  not  on 
our  breakfast-tables,  all  that  mankind  said  and  did  yesterday. 
The  Puritans  had  no  newspapers,  no  steam  transit,  no  tele- 
graph system,  nor  telephone.  It  was  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  before  stage-coaches  were  introduced  in  Eng- 
land, and  then  it  took  four  days  to  convey  a  passenger  at  the 
cost  of  four  pounds,  from  London  to  York.  Many  lines  did 
not  even  try  to  run  in  winter.  The  roads  were  so  narrow  that 
the  Dover  coach  was  drawn  by  six  horses  tandem,  while  the 
coachman  walked  by  their  side.  The  first  carriage  ever  used 
in  England,  was  invented  by  a  Hollander  for  Queen  Elizabeth. 
Erasmus  tells  us  that  salt  beef  and  strong  ale  constituted 
the  chief  part  of  this  great  sovereign's  breakfast ;  that  similar 
refreshments  were  served  her  in  bed  for  supper  ;  and  that,  as 
forks  were  not  invented,  she  ate  with  her  fingers.  There  is 
hardly  a  thriving  shopkeeper  who  does  not  occupy  at  the  close 
of  this  nineteenth  century,  a  house  which  English  nobles  in 
1650,  woull  have  envied.  Here  in  New  England,  life  was  even 
more  primitive.  There  were  no  post-offices  in  Connecticut 
until  1790.  Communication  with  the  great  centres  was  kept  up 
by  means  of  post-horses.  "It  was  an  exciting  time  when  John 
Perry,  the  carrier  of  the  mail,  the  man  of  news,  the  individual 
who  kept  Fuirfield  in  touch  with  Boston, Stamford  and  interven- 


EAELY    HISTORY    OF    UNQTJOWA.  5 

ing  towns,  arrived  and  handed  over'mail  and  news  together.  He 
was  appointed  to  office  in  1687.  The  whole  trip  was  made 
once  a  month  during  the  winter,  and  once  in  three  weeks  dur- 
ing the  summer."*  Floors  were  carpetless;  walls  bare  of  plas- 
ter, the  rafters  showing ;  no  pictures  adorned  the  walls ;  illum- 
ination was  obtained  from  candles  made  of  tallow,  and  mould- 
ed in  the  house.  The  cold  in  those  days  was  intense.  One 
writer  mentions,  "the  bread  freezing  at  the  Lord's  Table." 
Slavery  flourished  until  a  late  date.  There  are  few  wills  that, 
up  to  the  beginning  of  this  century,do  not  contain  bequests  of 
slaves.  In  1790  there  were  2,759,  and  in  1840,  quite  a  recent 
date,  17  were  still  living.  Such  were  the  primitive  conditions 
out  of  which  the  highly  civilized  Fairfield  that  we  know  so 
well,  has  emerged. 

The  Town  of  Fairfield  extends  from  the  Bridgeport  line  on 
the  east,  to  the  Sasco  river  on  the  west — a  distance  of  about 
six  miles ;  and  from  Long  Island  Sound  to  the  boundary  of 
the  town  of  Easton  on  the  north.  The  ground  is  delightfully 
varied,  consisting  of  plains  and  lofty  hills,  from  which  en- 
trancing views  of  the  blue  water  are  obtained.  The  popula- 
tion in  1890  was  3,868. 
'Child  :  An  Old  New  England  Town,  p.  37. 


CHAPTER  II. 


SKETCH    OF    THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION    IN    CONNECTICUT 
FKOM  1638,  A.  D.,  TO  1818,  A.  D. 

To  understand  clearly  and  fully  the  difficulties  with  which 
those  in  the  Town  of  Fairfield  who  favored  the  Church  of 
England  had  to  contend,  it  is  necessary  that  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal situation  in  Connecticut  from  its  colonization  in  the  first 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  to  the  adoption  of  the  new 
Constitution  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth,  be  set  forth. 

When  Roger  Ludlow  and  his  companions  settled  in 
Fairfield,  the  only  religious  organization  that  was  per- 
mitted to  exist,  was  of  the  Congregational  Faith  and 
Order.  As  far  as  possible  it  was  intended  to  be  a  stern, 
unyielding  protest,  against  everything  churchly  with  which 
the  colonists  had  been  familiar  in  their  life  beyond  the 
sea.*  One  of  its  marked  features  was  the  close  alliance  it 
created  between  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs.f  The  township 
and  the  church  were  one.J  At  the  public  meetings,  matters 

•It  Is  not  unfair  to  assume  that  Roger  Ludlow  himself  at  last  tired  of  the  situa- 
tion he  had  helped  to  create.  In  1654,  Incensed  ostensibly  at  the  Interference  of 
New  Haven  to  prevent  his  town,  Falrfleld,  from  waging  an  Independent  warfare 
against  the  Dutch,  he  went  to  Virginia,  ( a  Colony  wholly  settled  Dy  members  of 
the  Church  of  England,)  taking  the  records  of  the  town  with  him.  It  Is  not 
known  when  or  where  he  died.  Johnston :  History  of  Connecticut,  p.  20. 

tManlfestly  the  aim  of  the  pilgrims  was  the  construction  of  a  theocratic  state 
which  should  be  to  them,  all  that  the  theocracy  of  Moses,  and  Joshua,  and  Samuel 
had  been  to  the  Jews  In  Old  Testament  days.  In  such  a  scheme  there  was  no  room  for 
religious  liberty  as  we  understand  It.  The  state  they  were  to  found  was  to  consist 
of  a  united  body  of  believers,  and  In  It  there  was  apparently  no  more  room  for 
heretics  than  there  was  In  Rome  or  Madrid."  Flske:  The  Beginnings  of  New 
England,  p.  146. 

JFor  nearly  a  century,  the  same  persons  In  each  town  considered  and  decided 
ecclesiastical  affairs  Indifferently,  acting  as  a  town  or  a  church  meeting.  The 
same  body  laid  the  taxes,  called  the  minister,  and  provided  for  his  salary. 
Johnston :  History  of  Connecticut,  p.  60. 


SKETCH    OF    THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION.  / 

pertaining  to  both,  were  discussed  and  passed  upon.  Thus 
the  different  town  charges,  the  church,  and  the  school  went 
hand  in  hand,  and  every  inhabitant  was  compelled  by  the  law 
to  contribute  towards  the  maintenance  of  each.  The  result, 
in  a  brief  space  of  time,  was  open  revolt  on  the  part  of  those 
who,  where  their  religious  preferences  were  concerned,  re- 
solved to  act  independently.  As  far  back  as  1664,  William 
Pitkin,  and  others,  signing  themselves,  "Professors  of  the 
Protestant  Christian  Religion,  members  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  subjects  to  our  Sovereign  Lord,  Charles  the 
Second,  by  God's  grace,  King  of  England,"  addressed  the 
General  Assembly  at  the  October  session  "declaring  their 
aggrievances,''  and  "petitioning  for  a  redress  of  the  same." 
Their  grievances  were  that  they  were  not  under  the  care  of 
those  who  "  administered  in  a  due  manner  "  the  Sacraments 
of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  ;  that  they  "were  as  sheep 
scattered,  having  no  shepherd ; "  and  they  asked  for  the 
establishment  of  "  some  wholesome  law  "  by  virtue  of  which 
they  might  both  claim  and  receive  their  privileges ;  and 
furthermore,  they  humbly  requested,  "  that  for  the  future  no 
law  might  be  of  any  force  to  make  them  pay  or  contribute  to 
the  maintenance  of  any  minister,  or  officer,  in  the  church  that 
will  neglect  or  refuse  to  baptize  their  children  and  take  care 
of  them"  as  church  members.  In  1690,  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  the  freeholders  of  Stratford,  "  professors  of  the  Faith 
of  the  Church  of  England,  asked  permission  to  worship  God 
in  the  way  of  their  forefathers."*  The  ranks  of  such  dissi- 
dents, no  doubt  by  this  time  had  largely  increased,  for  com- 
munication between  this  and  the  mother-country  had  become 
so  frequent,  that  additions  to  the  population  were  constantly 
being  made,  and  of  these  the  Church  of  England  must  have 

•As  the  number  of  colonists  Increased,  dissatisfaction  Increased  with  them.  It 
often  took  the  shape  of  complaints  that  the  children  of  such  persons  were  refused 
baptism ;  but  It  may  be  suspected  fairly  that  the  natural  wish  to  share  In  the  con- 
trol of  the  church  whose  expenses  they  helped  to  pay,  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with 
It.  Johnston :  History  of  Connecticut,  p.  226. 


8  SKETCH    OF    THE   ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION. 

had  a  fair  share.  Petitions  and  strivings  for  liberty  to 
worship  God  "  according  to  the  dictates  of  one's  conscience,'' 
were  though,  of  no  avail.  Church  and  State  were,  at  this 
period,  as  closely  connected  as  they  ever  were  in  England. 
The  ecclesiastical  and  civil  powers  were  blended  together* 
and  liberty  of  conscience,  and  the  theory  of  human  rights 
existed  more  in  name  than  in  reality.  The  people  were 
required  to  support  the  Congregational  Order,  which  was  the 
Order  of  Faith  established  by  the  civil  government.  Nor  was 
this  all.  None  had  liberty  to  worship  publicly  in  any  other 
way,  nor  could  men  vote  or  hold  any  civil  office,  unless  they 
were  members  of  some  Congregational  church.*  This  unwise 
as  well  as  unnatural  policy,  was  persisted  in  until  1708.  In 
that  year  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut  passed  what 
was  termed  the  "Act  of  Toleration,"  by  which  all  persons 
who  "soberly  dissented"  from  the  worship  and  ministry  by 
law  established,  that  is,  the  Congregational  Faith  and  Order, 
were  permitted  to  enjoy  the  same  liberty  of  conscience  with 
the  dissenters  in  England,  under  the  act  of  William  and 
Mary. 

That  act  exempted  dissenters  from  punishment  for  non- 
conformity to  the  Established  Church,  but  did  not  exempt 
them  from  taxation  for  its  maintenance.  And  so,  by  appear- 
ing before  the  County  Court,  and  there  in  legal  forms  declar- 
ing their  "sober  dissent,"  any  persons  in  the  Colony  of  Con- 
necticut could  obtain  permission  to  have  public  worship 
their  own  way;  but  they  were  still  obliged  to  pay  for  the 
support  of  the  Congregational  churches  in  the  place  of 
their  respective  residences.  It  was  this  latter  provision 
that  practically  negatived  the  Act  of  Toleration.  How  could 
Churchmen  of  limited  means,  no  matter  how  ardent  their  love 
for  their  own  Church,  contribute  at  the  same  time  for  the 
upholding  of  a  form  of  religion,  for  which,  under  the  circum- 
•Beardsley :  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut,  vol.  1,  p.  8. 


SKETCH    OF    THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION. 

stances,  they  felt  no  sympathy  ?  Add  to  this,  the  innate  feel- 
ing that  ever  impels  us  to  resist  being  driven  against  our  wills, 
especially  in  the  sphere  of  religion,  and  we  have  at  once  an 
explanation  of  the  stalwartness  of  those  who  because  of  their 
resistance  to  the  law,  were  haled  to  prison.  In  the  Town  of 
Fail-field  there  were  many  who  were  subjected  to  this  penalty. 
Eev.  Samuel  Johnson,  Rector  of  Stratford,  in  February,  1727, 
writes  to  the  Venerable  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  at  London :  "I  have  just  come  from  Fairfield,  where 
I  have  been  to  visit  a  considerable  number  of  our  people  in 
prison  for  their  taxes  to  the  dissenting  ministers,  to  comfort 
and  encourage  them  under  their  sufferings.  But,  verily, 
unless  we  can  have  relief  and  be  delivered  from  this  unreason- 
able treatment,  I  fear  I  must  give  up  the  cause,  and  our 
Church  must  sink  and  come  to  nothing.  There  are  thirty-five 
heads  of  families  in  Fairfield,  who,  all  of  them,  expect  what 
these  have  suffered :  and  though  I  have  endeavored  to  gain 
the  compassion  and  favor  of  the  government,  yet  can  I  avail 
nothing ;  and  both  I  and  my  people  grow  weary  of  our  lives 
under  our  poverty  and  oppression."  Nor  was  this  an  isolated 
case.  Letters  sent  to  the  Venerable  Society  by  the  mission- 
aries, frequently  contained  complaints  of  persecutions  because 
of  their  Religion.  AVe  adduce  only  one  instance  of  what  took 
place  at  Stratford :  "  On  the  12th  day  of  December,  1709, 
some  of  their  officers,  about  midnight,  did  apprehend  and 
seize  the  bodies  of  Timothy  Titharton,  one  of  our  Church 
"Wardens,  and  John  Marcy,  one  of  the  Vestrymen,  and  forced 
them  to  travel,  under  very  bad  circumstances,  in  the  winter 
season,  and  at  that  unseasonable  hour  of  night,  to  the  com- 
mon gaol,  where  felons  are  confined,  being  eight  miles  dis- 
tant, not  allowing  them  so  much  as  fire  or  candle-light  for 
their  comfort,  and  there  continued  them  until  they  paid  such 
sums  as  by  the  gaoler  was  demanded,  which  was  on  the  15th 
day  of  the  same  month." 


10  SKETCH    OF    THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION. 

On  May  15,  1727,  a  petition  was  presented  to  the  Assembly, 
signed  by  Moses  Ward  and  Samuel  Lyon,  Church  Wardens, 
and  Dougal  Mackenzie,  John  Lock  wood,  Nathan  Adams,  Ben- 
jamin Sturges,  and  others,  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  all  the 
rest  of  their  brethren,''  stating  that  ten  of  them  had  been 
lately  imprisoned  for  taxes,  at  Fairfield,  praying  that  the  sums 
of  money  so  taken  from  them  might  be  restored ;  and  declar- 
ing that  if  their  grievances  might  be  redressed,  they  should 
41  aim  at  nothing  but  to  live  peaceably  and  as  becometh 
Christians  among  their  dissenting  brethren."  And  in  re- 
sponse to  this  petition,  an  act  was  passed,  providing  that  the 
taxes  collected  from  Episcopalians  for  the  support  of  religion, 
might,  under  certain  circumstances,  be  paid  to  the  Episcopal 
missionaries  instead  of  the  Congregational  ministers.  This 
movement  of  the  early  Churchmen  of  Fairfield,  was  the  first 
effective  step  ever  taken  towards  the  establishment  of  religious 
liberty  in  Connecticut;  a  result  which  it  required  nearly 
another  century  to  bring  to  pass.  Nor  did  their  efforts  to 
gain  their  end  stop  at  this  point.  The  above  petition  was 
followed  up  by  another  acknowledging  the  "  great  wisdom 
and  Christian  compassion  "  of  the  Assembly,  and  requesting 
liberty  to  manage  their  own  affairs  as  a  Society,  according  to 
the  canons  and  rubrics  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  ex- 
pressing their  adherence  to  that  Church,  "  let  the  difficulties 
be  never  so  great."  But  this  petition  was  rejected. 

Afterwards,  in  1738,  when  the  Legislature  was  about  to 
sell  the  land  of  several  townships,  which  had  been  set  apart 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  Gospel,  six  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  Episcopalians,  heads  of  families,  in  nine  parishes  or  mis- 
sions, supplied  by  seven  ministers,  requested,  by  a  petition* 
duly  presented,  that  a  small  share  of  the  avails  of  the  land 

•A  most  manly  memorial  "to  the  Honorable  the  Governor, Council  and  Representa- 
tives In  his  Majesty's  English  Colony  of  Connecticut,"  very  modestly  and  courte- 
ously eatltlel  by  its  authors,  "  the  humble  address  of  the  members  and  professor 
of  that  part  of  Christ's  Church  called  the  Church  of  England,  living  In  and  under 
the  government  of  the  said  Coiony."  Eccl.  Affairs,  vol.  x,  324, 


SKETCH    OF    THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION.  11 

to  be  sold,  and  of  the  funds  from  other  sources  for  tbe  same 
purpose,  might  be  appropriated  to  them.  But  this,  like  every 
other  attempt  of  Churchmen  to  secure  to  themselves  equal 
rights  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  met  with  an  unfavorable  recep- 
tion at  the  hands  of  the  Assembly. 

Finally,  in  the  year  1746,  the  Episcopalians,  who  had  been 
allowed  under  former  laws  of  the  Colony,  to  vote  with  their 
Congregational  neighbors  in  the  meetings  of  the  towns  and 
societies  by  which  the  taxes  for  the  maintenance  of  religion 
were  laid,  lost  that  privilege  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature, 
which  required  that  none  but  Congregationalists  should  vote 
in  such  meetings.  Against  such  partial  legislation,  those  in 
sympathy  with  the  Church  of  England,  again  entered  their 
protest.* 

All  of  these  acts  of  the  Colonial  Legislature  are  interesting 
and  important,  as  indications  of  the  state  and  progress  of 
Episcopal  Parishes  in  Connecticut,  from  the  year  1725  to  the 
year  1750.  The  last  instance,  that  of  1747,  which  is  very 
singular,  may  probably  be  best  accounted  for  by  the  fact, 
that  the  Episcopalians  had  become  so  numerous  in  some 
places  as  to  be  quite  formidable  in  the  position  of  a  third 
party,  holding  the  balance  of  power,  whenever  divisions  arose, 
as  they  often  did  in  those  days,  among  the  Congregation- 
alists themselves  f 

Harsh  treatment  of  Churchmen,  though,  did  not  cease  even 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  century.  In  the  proceedings  of  the 
Venerable  Society  some  years  before  the  American  Revolution, 
in  connection  with  the  statement :  "  There  is  at  this  present 
time,  a  number  of  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
prison  on  account  of  their  persecution  from  the  dissenters," 

•Thus  did  the  Churchmen  of  Connecticut  occupy,  thirty  years  before  the  Revo- 
lution, a  position  strikingly  illustrative  of  the  grand  fundamental  principle  of  that 
great  movement ;  namely,  resistance  to  "  taxation  without  representation." 

t  Rev.  N.  E.  Cornwall :     Historical  Discourse .  p.  26. 


12  SKETCH    OF    THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION./ 

this  remark  is  added,  "  these  sort  of  complaints  come  now  by 
almost  every  ship.''* 

While  the  successful  issue  of  the  war  of  the  Eevolution 
bettered  somewhat  the  status  of  Churchmen,  pains  were  taken 
to  keep  the  control  of  the  government  in  the  hands  of  the 
ruling  Order,  and  to  shape  thiugs  with  reference  to  the  per- 
petuity of  its  influence.  The  Congregational  body  was  as 
yet  the  State  Church.  Every  individual  was  still  subject  to 
personal  liability  for  its  maintenance.  This  continued  until 
1818,  when  the  spirit  of  toleration  that  was  abroad,  led  to  the 

•In  proof  of  the  Intolerance  and  persecution  to  which  the  early  Churchmen  of 
Connecticut  were  subjected,  we  cite  as  follows.  The  history  of  the  Church  in  Con- 
necticut, cannot  be  understood  without  such  retrospect.  We  give  our  authorities: 

In  the  early  settlement  of  the  New  Haven  Colony,  after  enacting  that  "none 
shall  be  admitted  to  the  free  Burgesses  In  any  of  the  Plantations  within  this  juris- 
diction, for  the  future,  but  such  planters  as  are  members  of  some  or  other  of  the  ap- 
proved Churches  in  New  England,"  and  that  "the  court  shall,  with  all  care  and 
dilllgence,  provide  for  the  maintenance  of  the  purity  of  Religion  and  suppress  tJte 
contrary"  ;  it  was  enacted  in  April,  1644,  ••  that  the  Judicial  Laws  of  God,  as  they 
were  delivered  by  Moses,  *  •  *  shall  be  a  rule  to  all  the  Courts  in  this  juris- 
diction." 

The  following  are  specimens  of  their  laws : 

"  It  Is  ordered  and  decreed  by  this  Court  •  •  »  if  any  person  within  this  juris- 
tlon  shall,  without  just  and  necessary  cause,  withdraw  himself  from  hearing  the 
public  ministry  of  the  Word,  after  due  means  of  conviction  used,  he  shall  forfeit  for 
his  absence  from  every  such  public  meeting,  five  shillings."  '-And  if  any  man 
refuse  to  pay  meet  proportion,  that  then  he  be  rated  by  authority  in  some 
just  and  equal  way:  and  If,  after  this,  any  man  withhold  or  delay  due  payment, 
the  Civil  J'o>cer  to  f>e  exercised  as  in  other  just  debts." 

For  behaving  contemptuously  toward  the  Word  preached,  or  the  Messengers 
thereof.  It  was  ordered,  '"And  If  a  second  time  they  break  forth  into  the  like  con- 
temptuous carriages,  they  shall  either  pay  five  pounds  to  the  public  treasury,  or 
stand  two  hours  openly  upon  a  block  or  stool,  four  feet  high,  upon  a  lecture  day, 
with  a  paper  fixed  on  his  breast,  written  with  capital  letters,  AN  OPEN  AND  OB- 
STINATE CONTEMNEK  OF  GOD'S  HOLT  ORDINANCES."  "  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records 
of  Connecticut,"  pp.  524, 545,  524. 

These  laws  were  not  a  dead  letter.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury,  afterwards  Bishop 
of  Connecticut,  was  seized  in  another  Colony,  at  Westchester,  N.  Y.,  ••  dragged  like 
a  felon  seventy  miles  irom  home"  to  New  Haven  by  an  armed  band  ;  and  there 
«•  after  firing  two  cannon  and  hurraing,"  he  was  placed  in  close  confinement,  and 
treated  with  extreme  severity.  MSS.  State  Papers  of  Conn.  vol.  1,  doc.  436. 

The  laws  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  were  still  more  Intolerant.  The  penalty 
affixed  to  those  laws  was  "  banishment  on  pain  of  death ;"  and  the  laws  them- 
selves were  executed  with  the  most  studied  and  horrible  cruelty.  See  Mass.  Bay 
Col.  Laws,  Ch.  1.  Sec.  ii ;  Ch.  11,  Sec.  ix  and  x. 


SKETCH    OF    THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION.  13 

inception  of  a  movement,  which  abolished  forever  in  the 
Commonwealth,  those  laws  which  gave  to  the  majority  un- 
equal civil  and  religious  privileges.  The  Old  Charter,  granted 
by  Charles  the  Second,  under  which  Connecticut  had  been 
governed  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  but  which  time  had 
shown  to  be  honeycombed  with  defects,  was  supplanted  by  vote 
of  the  people,  on  the  4th  day  of  July,  with  a  broad  and  liberal 
Constitution,  which  abolished  utterly  the  connection  of  the 
existing  ecclesiastical  system  with  the  State.  Religious  pro- 
fession and  worship  henceforth,  were  to  be  free  to  all,  and  no 
sect  was  to  be  preferred  by  law.  No  person  was  to  be  com- 
pelled to  join,  associate  with,  support,  or  remain  a  member  of, 
any  religious  body;  and  all  religious  bodies  were  to  be  en- 
tirely equal  before  the  law.  The  last  restriction  upon  the 
consciences  of  the  people  of  Connecticut  was  now  removed, 
and  religion  in  whatever  form  it  presented  itself  was  left,  for 
all  time,  to  their  free  acceptance  or  deliberate  rejection. 

The  hardships  which  Churchmen  were  subjected  to, 
which  we  have  thus  considered,  form  a  startling  pic- 
ture for  us  to  contemplate,  who  live  at  the  close  of 
the  nineteenth  century ;  yet  it  has  an  explanation  that 
readily  occurs  to  every  impartial  student  of  history. 
Such  persecution  for  religious  feeling  was  the  outcome  of  a 
state  of  things,  that  had  slowly,  but  surely,  grown  upon  the 
Christian  world.  In  the  early  ages  the  Church  had  to  endure 
persecution  ;  then  was  the  age  of  the  martyrs.  In  the  later 
centuries  the  Church  had  to  struggle  against  heresies  ;  then 
was  the  age  of  the  controversialists.  Now,  the  danger  of 
controversy,  necessary  as  it  often  is  for  the  defense  of  the  Truth, 
is  that  it  is  apt  to  arouse  a  persecuting,  vindictive  temper. 
The  man  invested  with  power,  the  over-man,  flushed  with 
zeal,  naturally  endeavors  to  make  the  under-man  think  as  he 
thinks;  and  if  he  rebels,  is  tempted  to  use  force  to  accomplish 
his  end.  This  is  where  Churchmen  erred  in  the  past. 


14:  SKETCH    OF    THE   ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION. 

Heresy  aud  Schism  came  to  be  treated  as  crimes  for  which 
the  prison  and  the  stake  were  adjudged  to  be  the  rightful 
penalties. 

But  "  curses  come  home  to  roost."  Those  who  were  perse- 
cuted learned  the  same  lesson  ;  and,  in  turn,  became  perse- 
cutors. When  their  time  came,  the  Calvinists  at  Geneva, 
and  the  Independents  in  the  Colonies,  proved  they  could 
be  even  more  ruthless  than  their  opponents. 

Neal,  in  his  "  History  of  New  England,''  says:  "It  must  be 
allowed  that,  when  the  Puritans  were  in  power,  they  carried 
their  resentments  too  far."  Bishop  Burnet  testifies  :  "  It  were 
as  easy,  as  it  would  be  invidious,  to  show  that  both  Presby- 
terians and  Independents  have  carried  the  principle  of  rigor 
in  the  point  of  conscience  much  higher,  and  have  acted  more 
implacably  upon  it,  than  ever  the  Church  of  England  has 
done,  even  in  her  angriest  fits." 

Let  us,  with  one  accord,  thank  God  that  those  old  days  of 
ecclesiastical  tyranny  have  passed  away,  we  trust  never  to  re- 
turn in  any  part  of  our  land  !  In  this  age  the  spirit  and 
language  of  conciliation  are  known  and  appreciated.  Uphold 
ing  the  Faith  and  Order  of  any  particular  religious  body,  by 
the  secular  arm,  is  not  accounted  to-day,  a  wise  or  seemly 
method  by  which  to  bring  about  unity  of  belief  or  action. 
We  have  learned  that  there  can  be  no  way  to  accomplish  that 
desired  end,  except  God's  way,  and  that  includes  always  sympa- 
thy and  comprehension.  The  Truth  of  God  must  be  carried  to 
hearts  and  consciences  by  the  teachings  of  those  who  are 
filled  with  it, ;  and  the  love  and  faith  which  it  begets  and 
fosters.  As  Churchmen,  looking  out  upon  the  broad  page  of 
human  experience,  let  us  be  just,  and  utter  no  harsh  or  bitter 
word  about  the  narrowness  peculiar  to  the  days  of  old.*  We  our- 
selves, as  well  as  those  who  differed  from  us,  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  when  opportunity  served, 

•When  In  1691,  King  William  sent  out  Sir  Lionel  Copley  to  be  royal  governor  of 
Maryland,  taxes  were  straightway  laid  for  the  support  of  the  Church  of  England. 


SKETCH    OF    THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    SITUATION.  15 

were  alike  intolerant.  When  we  bad  the  upper  hand,  we 
sought  by  every  available  means  to  enforce  conformity  ;  when 
it  came  to  be  the  turn  of  those  who  had  opposed  us,  they  sought 
by  equally  violent  processes,  to  maintain  the  position  they  had 
adopted.  As  has  been  forcibly  said,  "  We  cannot  complain 
of  Dissenters,  as  if  mere  Schisms  accounted  for  their  existence, 
when,  in  fact,  it  was  to  an  extent  it  is  difficult  to  exaggerate, 
the  sin  of  our  Church  which  caused  separation  to  seem  right 
to  purer  consciences  in  the  past ;  when,  in  fact,  it  is  to  non-con- 
formists that  we  owe,  in  times  when  darkness  had  almost  settled 
down  upon  us,  the  revival  and  maintenance  of  the  very  ideas 
of  Religion  ;  when,  once  more,  God  has  so  manifestly  blessed 
their  spiritual  life.  Let  us  never  forget  that  a  belief  in  a 
valid  Church  and  Ministry  is  not  in  any  logical  connection 
with  the  quite  unjustifiable  denial  that  God  can  act,  and  has 
acted  in  irregular  channels.  God  is  not  tied  to  his  Sacra- 
ments, even  though  as  men,  if  we  know  the  Truth,  we  are 
bound  to  seek  this  fellowship  in  accordance  with  His  cove- 
nant, and  only  so."* 

and  the  further  Immigration  of  Romanists  was  prohibited  under  heavy  penalties. 
This  measure  Involving  legislation  for  the  support  of  a  Church  of  which  only  a 
small  part  of  the  population  were  members,  was  as  unpopular  with  Puritans  as 
with  Papists.  Those  of  the  former  who  had  worked  zealously  to  undermine  the 
Roman  Church,  had  not  bargained  for  such  a  result  as  this.  John  Fiske  :  Old 
Virginia,  vol.ii,  p.  162. 
*Canon  Gore  :  The  Church  and  Dissent. 


CHAPTER  III. 


ORGANIZATION     OF     THE    VENERABLE     SOCIETY    FOR    THE    PROPAGATION 
OF    THE    GOSPEL,    1701,    A.    D.  :       VISIT    OF    ITS    FIRST     MIS- 
SIONARIES, KEITH  AND  TALBOT,  TO  THE  COLONIES, 
1702,    A.    D. 


REV.  GEORGE  KEITH,  M.  A. 


In  England,  as  far  back  as  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary, 
deep  interest  was  felt  in  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  American 


VISIT    OF    MESSRS.    KEITH    AND    TALBOT.  17 

Colonies,  which  were  then  beginning  to  loom  into  prominence. 
New  England,  especially,  was  thought  to  be  in  great  danger 
from  various  sectaries,  who  branching  off  from  the  new  form 
of  religion  by  law  established,  felt  themselves  free  to  teach  and 
hold  grievous  forms  of  error.  A  writer  of  the  time,  declares  that 
that  region  already  "  swarmed  "  with  Antinomians,  Familists, 
Conformatists,  Seekers,  Gortonists,  and  others  of  equally 
startling  nomenclature.  The  aborigines,  as  well  as  the  negroes 
who  had  been  introduced  in  large  numbers,  also  came  in  for 
a  share  of  the  general  attention  and  sympathy.  In  1701, 
this  widespread  interest  culminated  in  the  formation  of  the 
Venerable  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
Foreign  Parts ;  an  institution,  which  still  flourishes  with 
even  more  vigor  than  that  which  characterized  its  in- 
fancy. Its  charter  ran : 

"William  the  Third,  King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  greeting  : 

"Whereas  we  are  informed  that  in  many  of  our  Plantations 
and  Colonies  beyond  the  sea,  belonging  to  our  Kingdom  of 
England,  the  provision  for  ministers  is  very  mean,  whereby 
there  is  a  great  lack  of  the  administration  of  the  Word  and 
Sacraments,  causing  atheism  to  abound  for  the  want  of 
learned  and  orthodox  ministers,  and  Eomish  priests  and 
Jesuits  are  encouraged  to  proselyte  .  .  .  We  therefore  em- 
power these,  our  right  trusty  subjects ; " -then  follow  a 

hundred  of  the  noblest  names  in  England,  with  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  at  the  head,  constituting  the  Society. 
Its  popularity  was  great  from  the  outset.  One  member  gave 
a  thousand  pounds  for  the  work ;  another  nine  hundred  for 
teaching  the  negroes.  One  gave  to  it  his  estate  in  the  Bar- 
badoes  to  found  a  college  ;  and  another  a  present  of  books 
and  maps.  Archbishop  Tennison  left  it  one  thousand  pounds 
towards  founding  two  American  Bishoprics.  The  proprietors 
of  Vermont  set  apart  townships  for  its  use.  Evelyn  enters 


18  VISIT   OF   MESSRS.    KEITH    AND    TALBOT. 

upon  the  pages  of  his  diary  that  he  had  promised  twenty 
pounds  a  year  towards  it.* 


Minus  a  year  towards  u. 

The  object  of  the  Society,  set  forth  in  the  beginning,  and 


THE  SEAL  OF  THE  VENERABLE  SOCIETY. 

from  which,  so  far,  it  has  never  yet  deviated,  was   declared  to 
be  the  spread  of  the  "Worship  of  God  according  to   the  man- 
•McConnell :   History  American  Episcopal  Church,  p.  99. 


VISIT    OF    MESSRS.    KEITH    AND    TALBOT.  19 

ner  of  the  Church  of  England.  On  entering  upon  this  work, 
it  shortly  divided  it  into  three  branches  ;  the  spiritual  oversight 
of  those  English  emigrants  who  had  settled  in  the  Colonies  : 
the  conversion  of  the  Indians ;  and  also  of  the  African  slaves. 
Of  these  three,  the  first  asserted  itself  as  the  most  important, 
not  only  because  the  settlers  being  brethren  and  country- 
men, had  the  first  claim  upon  its  consideration,  but 
because  as  soon  as  the  formation  of  the  Society  became  known, 
this  element  began  to  be  clamorous  for  assistance.  From 
South  and  North  Carolina,  from  Virginia,  from  Maryland, 
from  Pennsylvania,  from  New  Jersey,  from  New  York,  from 
New  England,  the  Macedonian  cry  was  heard,  "  Come  over 
and  help  us."  It  thus  became  so  evident  that  a  wide-spread 
dissatisfaction  with  the  existing  religious  situation  prevailed, 
that  the  Saciety  determined  to  send  an  experienced  mission- 
ary to  travel  over  and  preach  to  the  people  in  the  several 
Colonies,  who  should  desire  to  listen  to  him  ;  and  if  possible 
aid  them  in  establishing  permanent  organizations.  A  large 
number  of  those  in  the  Colonies,  at  this  period,  had  been  bap- 
tized and  confirmed  in  the  Church,  before  they  left  England. 
Tempted  by  the  prospect  of  great  material  advantages  they 
had  left  their  homes,  without  calculating  the  loss  they  were 
to  sustain  in  being  separated  from  the  Ministry,  Worship 
and  Sacraments  with  which  they  were  familiar.  Had  they 
been  of  the  opinion  that  religious  differences  were  of  little 
importance,  the  situation  in  which  they  found  themselves  would 
not  have  troubled  them  greatly.  But  they  regarded  the  matter 
from  another  standpoint.  Nothing  less  than  the  ministra- 
tions of  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  would  satisfy 
their  desires.  Assenting  to  what  seemed  an  imperative  de- 
mand the  Venerable  Society  proceeded  to  act ;  the  Rev. 
George  Keith  was  the  missionary  selected  to  visit  the  Col- 
onies on  a  "  mission  of  observation,"  to  discover  and  study 
the  state  of  religion  therein,  and  to  report  where  mission- 
aries could  be  sent  and  congregations  established. 


20  VISIT    OF    MESSES.    KEITH    AND    TALBOT. 

His  commission  was,  "  to  seek  the  scattered  families  of  the 
Church,  and  awaken  the  people  to  a  sense  of  their  religious 
duties."  The  selection  was  an  admirable  one.  Those  who 
knew  him  well,  declared  Mr.  Keith  to  be  "a  pioneer  and  propa- 
gandist by  nature."  Earlier  in  life,  while  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  he  had  been  sent  to  the  Colony  of  Penn- 
sylvania, to  aid  its  founder,  but  discerning  dangerous  tendencies 
in  the  tenets  of  the  Quakers,  and  foreseeing  their  results,  he 
severed  his  connection  with  his  associates,  and  returned  to 
England,  not  long  after  to  take  Holy  Orders  in  the  Church. 

In  April,  1702,  he  started  on  his  mission  to  the  Colonies. 
He  came  in  an  English  warship,  which  brought  the  Govern- 
ors of  New  England  and  New  Jersey  to  their  provinces.  The 
Rev.  John  Talbot  came  with  them  as  chaplain.  With  them 
also  was  the  Rev.  Patrick  Gordon,  who  was  sent  out  as  mis- 
sionary to  Jamaica,  Long  Island. 

The  passengers  seem  to  have  been  congenial  to  each  other. 
Mr.  Keith,  writing  to  the  Venerable  Society,  says:  "Gov- 
ernor Dudley  was  so  civil  to  Mr.  Gordon  and  me,  that  he 
caused  us  to  eat  at  his  table  all  the  voyage,  and  his  conversa- 
tion was  both  pleasant  and  instructive,  insomuch  that  the 
great  cabin  of  the  ship  was  like  a  college  for  good  discourse, 
both  in  matters  theological  and  philosophical."  There  was 
daily  service,  in  which  both  the  passengers  and  crew  joined 
heartily  and  devoutly.  Mr.  Keith  mentions  the  strictness  of 
the  discipline  which  prevailed  upon  the  ship,  and  describes 
the  punishment  of  the  crew  for  "  profane  swearing,"  which 
was  "  causing  them  to  carry  a  heavy  wooden  collar  about 
their  necks  for  an  hour,  that  was  both  painful  and  shameful."* 

Mr.  Talbot,  the  chaplain,  became  so  enthusiastic  about  Mr. 
Keith  and  his  mission,  that  he  begged  to  become  a  fellow 
laborer  and  a  companion  in  his  travels.  His  proposal  was 
accepted  and  in  due  time,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 

•Ms.  Letters,  8.  P.  G.,  vol.  1,  p.  9. 


VISIT    OF    MESSRS.    KEITH    AND    TALBOT.  21 

Gordon,  the  Venerable  Society  appointed  him  Mr.  Keith's 
assistant.  Their  ship  reached  Boston  in  June,  1702,  and 
after  a  few  days  the  two  men  began  their  journey.  They 
went  from  hamlet  to  hamlet,  and  house  to  house,  preaching 
wherever  they  could  gain  a  hearing,  baptizing  hundreds, 
gathering  the  wandering  sheep  into  organized  folds,  and 
making  provision  to  build  churches  wherever  that  work  could 
be  done. 

Everywhere  there  were  numbers  who  cordially  welcomed 
them.  In  a  letter  addressed  by  Mr.  Keith  to  "the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  all  others,  the 
Honorable  Members  of  the  Society,"  dated  the  29th  of 
November,  1702,  and  giving  an  account  of  his  labors  since  his 
arrival  in  Boston,  on  the  llth  of  June  preceding,  he  says : 
"  In  divers  places  of  New  England  where  we  traveled,  we 
found  many  well  affected  to  the  Church,  not  only  the  people 
but  several  Presbyterian  ministers  in  New  England,  who  re- 
ceived us  as  brethren,  and  requested  us  to  preach  to  their 
congregations,  as  accordingly  we  did.  These  were  Mr. 
John  Cotton  ( a  grandson  to  old  John  Cotton  )  the  Presby- 
terian minister  at  Hampton,  where  I  preached  twice,  and  Mr. 
Talbot  once,  having  very  great  auditories  ;  Mr.  Cushin,  Pres- 
byterian minister  at  Salisbury,  eight  miles  distant  from 
Hampton  westward,  where  we  both  preached  on  a  Sunday, 
and  had  a  great  auditory  ;  Mr.  Gurdon  Saltonstall  at  New 
London,  fifty  miles  west  from  Narragansetts,  where  we  both 
preached  on  a  Sunday  ;  the  people  generally  well  affected, 
and  those  three  ministers  aforesaid,  all  worthy  gentlemen, 
who  declared  their  owning  the  Church  of  England,  and  that 
if  they  were  in  England,  they  would  join  in  external  com- 
munion with  her ;  and  were  there  a  Bishop  in  America,  we 
doubt  not  but  several  would  receive  ordination  from  him."* 

*Cliurcli  Record,  vol.  i,  no.  xvii. 


22  VISIT    OF   MESSRS.    KEITH    AND    TALBOT. 

This  very  circumstantial  account  clearly  gives  to  the  people 
of  New  London  the  honor  of  first  welcoming  in  Connecticut 
the  missionaries  sent  forth  by  the  Venerable  Society.  But 
there  is  no  doubt  Messrs.  Keith  and  Talbot  preached  in  all 
the  principal  places  of  the  Colonies.  Humphrey  says  :  *"  They 
traveled  over  and  preached  in  all  the  Governments  and 
Dominions  belonging  to  the  Crown  of  England,  betwixt  North 
Carolina  and  Piscataway  River  in  New  England,  inclusively, 
being  ten  distinct  Governments;  and  extending  in  length 
800  miles."  At  all  events,  the  reception  given  to  Mr.  Keith 
and  his  companion,  reveals  these  facts :  that  even  at  that 
early  date,  there  was  a  strong  drift  towards  Episcopacy ;  that 
the  Congregational  system,  although  in  operation  for  more 
than  half  a  century,  without  any  interruption  or  hindrance, 
had  begun  to  prove  unsatisfactory  to  many  of  its  prominent 
supporters,  and  that  for  a  permanent  settlement  of  the  re- 
ligious question,  the  people,  if  allowed  to  choose,  would  prefer 
the  ecclesiastical  system  of  the  Church  of  England.  Of  a 
visitation  of  Messrs.  Keith  and  Talbot  to  Fairfield  we  have  no 
satisfactory  evidence.  One  tradition  relates  that  they  stopped 
there  for  a  brief  period,  as  they  journeyed  from  New  London 
to  New  York  ;  another  that  they  crossed  the  Sound  from 
New  London  to  Long  Island  in  a  sloop  which  they  hired. 
If  New  London  was  the  only  town  in  Connecticut  visited 
by  them,  somehow  they  obtained  in  a  brief  space  of  time 
ample  information  concerning  the  whole  Colony.  Wri- 
ting home  a  few  months  afterwards,  they  reported  of 
Connecticut  that  it  contained  "  thirty  thousand  souls  in 
about  thirty-three  towns,  all  Dissenters,  supplied  with 
ministers  and  schools  of  their  own  persuasion."  One  general 
result  accrued  from  their  protracted  itineracy :  numbers 
again  had  a  taste  of  the  worship  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  ;  their  courage  to  stand  up  in  its  behalf  was  fortified  ; 
while  their  longing  for  a  settled  ministry  among  them  was 

•History  S.  P.  G.,  p.  20. 


VISIT    OF    MESSES.    KEITH   AND    TALBOT.  23 

aroused.  The  proof  of  this  is  found  in  the  announcement  the 
Venerable  Society  was  shortly  compelled  to  make :  "  that  it 
was  unable  to  respond  favorably  to  one  half  of  the  appeals 
from  the  Colonies,  presented  to  it  for  its  consideration." 

After  an  absence  of  two  years,  Mr.  Keith  returned  to 
England,  and  became  incumbent  of  Edburton,  in  the  pleasant 
County  of  Sussex.  It  was  in  March,  1716,  that  he  finished 
his  earthly  labors,  and  the  simple  record  in  the  parish  register 
under  date  of  March  29th,  reads:  "Then  the  Kev.  Mr. 
Keith,  Rector  of  Edburtou,  was  buried.'' 

The  Venerable  Society  sent  out  no  missionary  more 
successful  and  self-sacrificing,  than  this  godly  man.  He 
began  the  work  and  laid  the  foundations  on  which  others 
built.  Mr.  Talbot  was  an  effective  and  faithful  coadjutor. 
The  two  labored  together,  harmoniously  and  enthusiastically, 
throughout  their  extended  tours.  After  Mr.  Keith's  de- 
parture, Mr.  Talbot  became  Rector  of  St.  Mary's  Church, 
Burlington,  New  Jersey,  of  which  he  was  the  founder.  When 
he  retired  he  was  the  oldest  missionary  in  the  Colonies,  and 
in  influence  he  stood  first  among  the  Churchmen  of  his  day.* 

*Mr.  Talbot  lias  been  the  subject  of  a  curious  story.  It  Is  alleged  that  after  twenty 
years  of  faithful  service  at  Burlington,  he  went  to  England,  and  was  consecrated 
to  the  Episcopate  by  the  non-juring  Bishops.  McConnell:  History  of  the  Ameri- 
can Episcopal  Church,  p.  103,  says :  "  Anderson,  Hawks,  Wllberforce,  and 
Caswell  affirm  that  he  did.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Hills,  In  his  '  History  of  the  Church  In 
Burlington,'  discusses  the  same  subject  exhaustively  and  maintains  the  same 
assertion.  In  Vol.  I.  of  Bishop  Perry's  '  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  church' 
Is  a  Monograph  by  Rev.  John  Fulton,  D.  D.,  In  which  he  re-examines  the  whole 
case,  and  arrives  at  the  conclusion,  that  Mr.  Talbot  never  received  such  consecra- 
tion ;  and  that  the  tradition  arose  from  confounding  his  name  with  that  of  another 
person." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  REV.  GEORGE  MUIRSON  ;  THE  REV.  MESSRS  TALBOT,  SHARPE, 

AND  BRIDGE  ;  AND  THE  REV.  GEORGE  PIGOT,  OFFICIATE 

AT  FAIRFIELD,  1706-1723,  A.  D. 

In  1704,  the  Venerable  Society  established  a  mission  at 
Rye,  in  New  York,  and  sent  over  the  Rev.  George  Muirson  to 
take  charge  of  it.  He  wrote  thus  to  the  Society  in  1706: 
"I  have  baptized  about  two  hundred  young  and  old,  but 
mostly  grown  persons.  I  have  now  above  forty  communi- 
cants, though  I  had  only  six  when  I  first  administered  the 
Holv  Sacrament."  The  fact  of  Mr.  Muirson's  settlement  at 
Rye,  and  his  successful  labors  there,  soon  became  known  in 
many  of  the  shore-towns  of  Connecticut,  and  repeated  and 
urgent  petitions  to  visit  them  were  sent  by  the  Church-people. 
Possessed  with  the  missionary  spirit  of  St.  Paul.  Mr.  Muir- 
son determined  to  comply  with  their  request.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1706,  in  company  with  Colonel  Caleb  Heathcote,  a 
zealous  and  affluent  layman,  at  that  time  residing  in  West- 
chester  county,  he  set  out  upon  a  journey,  which  it  was  pur- 
posed should  extend  as  far  as  the  Housatouic  river.  They  rode 
to  Fairfield,  and  thence  to  Stratford.  The  missionary,  though 
"  threatened  with  prison  and  hard  usage,"  preached  to  large 
congregations,  and  "  baptized  about  twenty-four,  mostly 
grown  people."  Writing  to  the  Society,  on  his  return,  he 
says :  "I  have  been  lately  in  the  Government  of  Connecticut, 
where  I  observe  some  people  well  affected  to  the  Church  ;  so 
that  I  am  assured  an  itinerant  missionary  might  do  great 
service  in  that  Province.  Some  of  their  ministers  have 
privately  told  me  that,  had  we  a  Bishop  among  us  they  would 


THE    REV.    GEORGE    MUIRSON.  25 

c  mform  and  receive  Holy  Orders,  from  which,  as  well  as  on 
the  Continent,  the  necessity  of  a  Bishop  will  appear." 

Col.  Heathcote  was  so  favorably  impressed  by  what  he  saw 
and  heard  during  this  visit,  that  he  hastened  to  give  his  im- 
pressions concerning  it  to  the  Venerable  Society.  He  says : 
"  We  found  the  places  we  visited  very  ignorant  of  the  Consti- 
tution of  our  Church,  and  therefore  enemies  to  it.  The  chief 
towns  are  furnished  with  ministers,  mainly  Independents, 
denying  baptism  to  the  children  of  all  such  as  are  not  in  full 
communion  with  them  :  there  are  many  thousands  in  that 
Government  unbaptized.  The  ministers  were  very  uneasy  at 
our  coming  amongst  then,  and  abundance  of  pains  were  taken 
to  terrify  the  people  from  hearing  Mr.  Muirson.  But  it 
availed  nothing,  for  notwithstanding  all  their  endeavors,  we 
had  a  very  great  congregation,  and  indeed  infinitely  beyond 
expectation.  The  people  were  wonderfully  surprised  at  the 
order  of  our  Church,  expecting  to  have  heard  and  seen  some 
strange  thing,  by  the  accounts  and  representations  of  it  that 
their  teachers  had  given  them.'1  * 

In  a  later  letter,  dated  Scarsdale  Manor,  Nov.  9,  1706, 
Colonel  Heathcote  enters  upon  a,  discussion  of  the  general 
affdrs  of  the  Church  in  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Connecti- 
cut. He  says :  But  bordering  on  Connecticut  there  is  no 
part  of  the  Continent,  from  whence  the  Church  can  have  so 
fair  an  opportunity  to  make  impressions  upon  the  Inde- 
pendents in  that  Government,  who  are  settled  by  their  laws, 
from  Rye  Parish  to  Boston  Colony,  which  is  about  35  leagues, 
in  which  there  are  abundance  of  people  and  places.  As  for 
Boston  Colony,  I  never  was  in  it,  so  can  say  little  of  it.  But 
for  Connecticut,  I  am  and  have  been  pretty  conversant  ;  and 
always  was  as  much  in  their  good  graces  as  any  man.  And 
now  I  am  upon  that  subject,  I  will  give  the  best  account  I 
can  of  that  Colon}'.  It  contains  in  length  about  140  miles, 
and  has  in  it  about  40  towns,  in  which  there  is  a  Presbyterian 
•Humphrey:  History  of  the  Venerable  Society,  p.  118. 


26  THE    REV.    GEORGE    MCIR8ON. 

or  Independent  minister  settled  by  their  law  ;  to  whom  the 
people  are  obliged  to  pay,  notwithstanding  many  times  they 
are  not  ordained ;  of  which  I  have  known  several  examples. 
The  number  of  people  there,  I  believe,  is  about  2,400  souls. 
They  have  an  abundance  of  odd  kind  of  laws,  to  prevent  any 
from  dissenting  from  their  church,  and  endeavor  to  keep  the 
people  in  as  much  blindness  and  unacquaintedness  with  any 
other  religion  as  possible ;  but  in  a  more  particular  manner, 
the  Church,  looking  upon  her  as  the  most  dangerous  enemy 
they  have  to  grapple  withall,  and  abundance  of  pains  is  taken 
to  make  the  ignorant  think  as  bad  as  possible  of  her.  And  I 
really  believe  that  more  than  half  of  the  people  of  that  Gov- 
ernment, think  our  Church  is  little  better  than  the  Papists, 
and  the  truth  is,  they  improve  everything  against  us.  Yet  I 
dare  aver,  that  there  is  not  a  much  greater  necessity  of  having 
the  Christian  religion  preached  in  its  true  light  anywhere 
than  amongst  them.  Many,  if  not  the  greater  number  of 
them,  being  in  a  little  better  than  in  a  state  of  heathenism  ; 
having  never  been  baptized  or  admitted  to  the  Holy  Com- 
munion."* Concluding  his  letter,  Colonel  Heathcote  recom- 
mends that  Rev.  Mr.  Muirson  be  sent  on  a  second  missionary 
tour  throughout  the  Colony.  It  was  under  such  circum- 
stances that  the  Episcopal  Church  was  introduced  in  form, 
both  at  Fairfield,  and  at  Stratford.  The  following  year,  Mr. 
Muirson  came  again  to  Fail-field  by  invitation  of  the  Church- 
people  there,  and  preached  to  a  large  congregation  in  a 
private  house,  and  baptized  a  number  of  adults  and  children. 
Concerning  this  visit  he  wrote  to  the  Society  :  "  The  Inde- 
pendents used  means  to  obstruct  me.  The  people  were  like- 
wise threatened  with  imprisonment,  and  a  forfeiture  of  five 
pounds  for  coming  to  hear  me.  It  would  require  more  time 
than  you  would  willingly  bestow  on  these  lines,  to  express 
how  rigidly  and  severely  they  treat  our  people,  by  taking 
their  estates  by  distress  when  they  do  not  willingly  pay  to 
*  Boiron :  History  or  VVestchester  County,  vol.  ii,  p.  106. 


THE    REV.    GEORGE    MUIRSON.  27 

support  their  ministers ;  and  though  every  Churchman  in 
that  Colony  pays  his  rate  for  the  building  and  repairing  their 
meeting-houses,  yet  they  are  so  set  against  us,  that  they 
deny  us  the  use  of  them  though  on  the  week  days.  All  the 
Churchmen  of  this  Colony  request  is  that  they  may  not  be 
oppressed ;  that  they  may  obtain  a  liberty  of  conscience,  and 
call  a  minister  of  their  own  ;  that  they  be  freed  from  paying 
to  their  ministers,  and  thereby  be  enabled  to  suppoi't  their 
own.  This  is  all  these  good  men  desire."  * 

The  missionary  efforts  of  Mr.  Muirson  were  not  long  in 
producing  a  satisfactory  result.  Early  in  the  year  1707,  the 
Episcopalians  of  Stratford,  probably  in  connection  with  a  few 
from  Fairfield,  "embodied  themselves  in  a  religious  society," 
and  requested  that  Mr.  Muirson  might  be  sent  to  reside 
among  them  as  a  settled  missionai-y.  But  before  they  received 
any  answer  to  their  application,  he  died,  in  October,  1708  ; 
and  the  few  Churchmen,  who  had  begun  with  much  hope  and 
amid  cheering  prospects,  to  lay  the  foundation  of  the  first 
Episcopal  parish  in  Connecticut,  were  called,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  to  await  with  patience,  through  a  series  of  untoward 
events,  during  a  number  of  years,  the  coming  of  a  resident 
clergyman. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Muirson,  the  Kev.  Messrs.  Talbot, 
Sharpe  and  Bridge,  missionaries  located  in  New  York  and 
New  Jersey,  occasionly  visited  Stratford  and  Fairfield.  And 
at  one  time,  Mr.  Sharpe  spent  nearly  a  month,  and  took  much 
pains,  and  baptized  many ;  among  whom  was  an  aged  man, 
said  to  have  been  the  first  man-child  born  in  the  Colony  of 
Connecticut.  At  length,  in  1713,  the  Kev.  Mr.  Phillips  was 
put  in  charge  of  the  parish  at  Stratford ;  but  after  a  few 
months,  during  which  his  ministrations  were  very  irregular, 
he  suddenly  left  the  Colony.  And  finally,  to  add  to  the 
disappointment  of  the  scattered  flock,  not  yet  fully  organized 
and  settled  as  a  regular  mission,  after  several  years  of  zealous 
•  Humphrey :  History  of  the  Venerable  Society,  p.  119. 


28  THE   REV.    GEORGE    MUIRSON. 

and  patient  effort  to  that  end,  the  Rev.  Aeneas  Mackenzie,  condi- 
tionally appointed  for  the  supply  of  Stratford,  was  detained 
at  Staten  Island,  by  the  offer  of  a  gentleman  to  build  and 
endow  a  Church  there.  Thus  thwarted  by  various  circum- 
stances, scarcely  less  discouraging  than  the  opposition  and 
hindrance  presented  by  laws  of  the  Colony,  which  were 
devised  for  the  support  of  the  Congregational  system  of 
religion,  the  Churchmen  of  Stratford  and  Fail-field,  to  whom 
Mr.  Muirson  had  preached  in  1706  and  1707,  were  not  pro- 
vided with  a  resident  pastor  until  1722.*  Then,  to  their  great 
joy,  the  Rev.  George  Pigot  was  sent  hither  by  the  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  and  located  for  a  while  at 
Stratford ;  with  a  general  charge  of  all  the  Church-people  in 
these  parts ;  who  seem  to  have  been,  as  yet,  almost  confined 
to  Stratford  and  Fairfield. 

Mr.  Pigot  held  his  first  service  at  Fairfield,  at  the  house  of 
Mr.  Hanford,  and  preached  to  about  six  families,  the  26th 
day  of  August.  He  arranged  to  officiate  regularly  thereafter, 
once  a  month.  The  other  Sundays,  when  Mr.  Pigot  was  offi- 
ciating at  Stratford,  or  elsewhere,  services  at  Fairfleld  were 
kept  up  by  the  aid  of  a  faithful  lay-reader.  It  appears  from 
letters  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Venerable  Society, 
that  in  the  year  1723,  Dr.  James  Laborie,  a  French  physician 
of  eminence,  who  had  left  his  native  country  towards  the 
close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  been  "  ordained  by  Mr. 
Knight,  antistes  of  the  Canton  of  Zurich,"  taught  and  held 
service  conformably  to  the  usage  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
his  own  house  in  Fairfield.  According  to  the  records  of  the 
Town  he  resided  there  in  1718,  having  bought  at  that  time,  of 
Mr.  Isaac  Jennings,  a  place  known  as  "  the  stone  house  on 
the  rocks,"  probably  the  same  concerning  which  he  afterwards 
said,  that  he  had  "  destinated  "  it  to  the  service  of  the  Church 
of  England.  Anyway,  using  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  for 
a  manual  of  worship,  this  zealous  layman  invited  beneath  his 

*  Rev.  N.  E.  Cornwall :   Historical  Discourse,  p.  9. 


THE   REV.    GEORGE    MU1RSON.  29 

roof,  on  Sunday  mornings,  those  who  still  clung  to  the 
Church  of  England  and  its  form  of  worship.  Here,  then, 
was  a  nucleus,  independent  of  a  settled  minister,  about  which 
the  Church  sentiment  could  gather  and  grow !  And  doubtless 
it  did  much  to  strengthen  Mr.  Pigot's  brief  but  successful 
ministry.  The  latter  served  Fairfield,  in  common  with 
Stratford  and  Newtown  but  a  year  and  a  half,  when  he  was 
removed  by  the  Venerable  Society's  order,  to  Providence* 
Khode  Island,  the  place  for  which  he  had  been  intended  when 
he  first  arrived  in  America.  It  seems  quite  plain  then  that 
the  Church  in  Fairfield,  actually  began  with  the  lay  services  of 
Dr.  Laborie.  If  the  date  of  his  coming  to  Fairfield,  1718,  is 
correct,  that  would  be  the  year  of  its  inception.  Mr.  Pigot 
was  the  first  clergyman  who  officiated  regularly,  but  even  in 
his  time,  1722,  the  continuous  life  of  the  parish  can  be  said  to 
have  depended  upon  the  fervor  of  those  Churchmen  who  met 
from  Sunday  to  Sunday,  and  participated  in  Divine  worship 
according  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  the  officiant  being 
more  frequently  one  of  their  own  number.* 

*  In  a  "Registry- book"  kept  by  Mr.  Pigot  and  Mr.  Johnson,  at  Stratford,  there 
is  a  record  of  the  appointment,  in  1724,  of  two  Wardens  and  nine  Vestrymen  "  for 
Stratford,"  one  Warden  and  two  Vestrymen  "  for  Falrfleld."  one  Warden  and  two 
Vestrymen  "for  Newtown,"  and  two  Wardens  and  three  Vestrymen  "for 
Ripton ; "  the  Warden  for  Fairfleld  being  Dougal  Mackenzie,  and  the  Vestrymen, 
James  Laborie,  Sen.  and  Benjamin  Sturges.  At  the  same  time  James  Laborie, 
Jun.  was  one  of  the  Vestrymen  for  Stratford. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE  REV.  SAMUEL   JOHNSON  AND   THE    BUILD- 
ING OF  THE  FIRST  CHURCH  AT  MILL  PLAIN,  1723-1727. 


REV.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 


In  1723,  Rev.   Samuel  Johnson,  succeeded   Mr.   Pigot  as 
rector  of  the  parish  at  Stratford,  and  animated  with  the  same 


THE   REV.    SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  31 

noble  spirit  of  his  predecessor,  still  continued  to  give  to  the 
Church-people  at  Fairfield,  a  generous  shave  of  his  time.  He 
it  was,  who  having  been  a  tutor  at  Yale  college,  and 
afterwards  a  popular  Congregational  minister  at  West  Haven, 
and  having  had  a  Prayer  Book  put  into  his  hands,*  had  read 
and  re-read  it  until  he  had  become  convinced  that  "  there 
were  no  prayers  like  those  of  the  Church  of  England:''  had 
crossed  the  ocean  to  the  mother-country,  and  been  "  Episco- 
pally  initiated,  confirmed  and  ordained ;"  and  was  now 
returned  to  Connecticut  to  extend  the  borders  of  the  Church 
of  his  convictions.  How  few  Churchmen  of  the  present 
day  are  conversant  with  that  stirring  episode  in  the  ecclesias- 
tical history  of  Connecticut !  Dr.  Cutler,  President  of  Yale, 
Mr.  Johnson,  Mr.  Brown,  also  a  Tutor  at  Yale,  all  men  of  great 
purity  of  character,  of  profound  learning,  and  liberal  culture, 
became  convinced  that  their  duty  lay  in  returning  to  the 
Church  of  their  fathers,  the  Church  of  England.  One  reason 
was.  the  Congregational  system  was  not  meeting  the  spiritual 
need  of  the  time.  This  was  the  period  of  controversy.  The 
principles  of  Puritanism  had  lost  their  held  upon  many  of  the 
people.  A  re-action  had  set  in,  and  the  moral  tone  of  the 
Connecticut  towns  was  lowered.  "  The  complicated  relations 
of  Church  and  State  needed  disentanglement  and  explana- 
tion." f  Another  was,  it  became  evident  after  calm,  unpreju- 
diced study,  that  unless  God  was  the  author  of  confusion,  He 
would  establish  but  one  Church,  not  many  so-called  churches, 
to  extend  and  conserve  the  Gospel  of  His  Son  ;  that  He  had 
done  so  through  His  inspired  Apostles,  and  that  His  Church 
with  its  Holy  Scriptures,  Ministry,  Sacraments,  and  Liturgy, 

*  A  good  man  in  Guilford,  Smithson  toy  name— blessed  be  his  memory !— liad  a 
Prayer  Book  which  he  put  into  the  hands  of  the  youthful  Johnson  before  he  left 
his  native  town.  Many  of  the  prayers  that  he  found  therein,  Johnson  committed 
to  memory,  and  afterwards  used  as  occasion  required,  in  public  worship,  alike  to 
the  comfort  of  himself  and  to  the  comfort  and  edification  of  his  flock.— Beardsley  : 
History  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  vol.  ii,  p.  34. 

t  Child  :   The  Prime  Ancient  Society,  p.  30. 


